Kids Place Child Care Center-Corte Madera

travelmom: I was thrilled to see a profile of our favorite preschool on the Marin Mommies website. All of my three kids attended The Kid's Place. My two older once have since graduated, but my youngest one is still there (a proud Whale (Pre-K) room student)
 My youngest one (now 4 years old) was the only one who started in the infant room. The infant room teachers are wonderful, very caring and communicate extremely well with parents. I was very comfortable leaving my baby girl in their hands. The teachers do amazing activities with the little ones, and peeking in from the Whale room, I could see my daughter being quite happy and entertained.
 The toddler room is wonderful, too. Both my girls spent their toddler years there, and they enjoyed every minute of it. The kids get to do a lot of artwork in that room, receive an introduction to circle time and still have lots of time for free play. Julie, one of the teachers in the toddler room, has been there for years, and my kids are still friends with her, looking very much forward to the occasional babysitting night with "teacher Julie".
 
Here is a summary of the pros and cons in general:
 
Pro: all the teachers and both directors communicate very well with parents. Environment is very caring. High flexibility in terms of drop-off & pick-up time. Great art project and enrichment classes (some free, like the weekly music class). Great themed "big" projects in the Dolphin (=Preschool class) and Whale room (theatre, going green, architecture, just to name a few). Little teacher turn around, most teachers have been there for many years. Students leave the Whale room well prepared for Kindergarten (applied to both my son, now a 4th grader, and my older daughter, now a 2nd grader). The teachers respect each individual child with his or her special needs, and help them integrate into the group. All my kids found lasting friends at The Kids Place, and so did we parents. We really liked the balance between free play and learning in a playful environment.
 
Cons: I had a hard time coming up with anything. Possibly the weakest room is (or was) the Dolphin room, which is a very tough age-group (potty training and terrible-two temper tantrums can wear out anyone, I guess), but with the recent addition of two wonderful new teachers (Jim and Kara), things have really improved. Hannah has been in class with both of them and adores them. So may be that does not really count towards the cons.